Margaret Atwood Turns 75

I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.

With no signs of slowing down, Canadian novelist, poet and essayist Margaret Atwood turns 75 on November 18. We’re celebrating her illustrious career that already spans five decades. Perhaps best known for The Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian novel set in the near future and winner of the first Arthur C. Clarke Award, or The Blind Assassin, winner of the Man Booker Prize, Atwood often pursues themes of women's identity, power, survival and our relationship to animals.

Margaret Atwood first received critical acclaim with her poetry. She is the recipient of numerous literary and commemorative awards, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.  Never one to be defined by a certain genre, in fact Atwood prefers the term speculative fiction to science fiction, her work crosses all sorts of unmarked boundaries. And let's not forget her post-apocalyptic trilogy of Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam, which speaks to the current environmental crisis and the consequences of uncontrolled genetic engineering.

Her latest book is a collection of short tales that call to mind another great Canadian writer of short psychological fiction and friend of Atwood’s, Nobel Prize-winner Alice Munro. Stone Mattress is darkly humorous and speaks to our times with deadly accuracy. If you have a few minutes to spare, watch this Google Hangout with these two brilliant women where they discuss their work and their love of flawed characters.